UCM Blog

There has been a big update to UCM, we have started down the path of re-writing the code in a better and more extendable way.

This is paving the way for much better (and quicker) updates and features in the future. Here is a quick summary of what is included in the latest update

Show staff first + last name in drop downs ( advanced config: staff_first_last )

Core plugin: new OOP classes to share between Invoice, quote and jobs (class.base-document.php, class.base-multi.php, class.base-single.php). This will allow us to bring the features between invoices, quotes and jobs up to date with each other, and add new features once instead of 3 separate times. It will also eventually let developers copy the invoice/job/quote code into their own modules easier as well.

Customers: they can now have auto incrementing ID numbers. Change the advanced setting “customer_have_id_numbers” to 1. By default the Customer ID numbers will look like: C-001, C-002, etc.. you can change this format in advanced settings, look for “customer_mask_0”. The advanced field “customer_next_0” will store the next ID number if you need to change it. The ID number will increment every time you click “create new customer”.

Customers: external link. There is a new external link that the customer can click to view a summary of all their jobs, invoices and payments. This is a great summary that can be quickly sent to the customer when they want an update on a project.

Customer billing type: Normal and Supplier/Vendor. This is paving the way for a much better “Supplier/Vendor” feature, where you can record vendor expenses insite UCM and have them reported correctly. While this doesn’t work at the moment you can still set your customer type from Settings > Customers > Customer Types.

Email: advanced setting ’email_ignore_certificate’ will let you bypass SSL issues when using SMTP on hosts that have invalid or self signed certificates.

Form: better support for modal popups and ajax form submissions

Invoice: renamed template from ‘external_invoice’ to ‘invoice_external’. New advanced options to choose a custom email, pdf and external template. The ‘user_id’ database field has been changed to ‘contact_user_id’ to make room for a future planned feature. There is also an “Archive” feature, you can archive a document and it will not display by default in the listing.

Job: renamed template from ‘external_job’ to ‘job_external’. New advanced options to choose a custom email, pdf and external template.. There is also an “Archive” feature, you can archive a document and it will not display by default in the listing. We have also started work on a new way to edit job tasks via a popup window, this will allow us to offer more options on each job task. Once this feature is working we will roll it out to invoices and quotes as well.

Quote: renamed template from ‘quote_pdf’ to ‘quote_print’. New advanced options to choose a custom email, pdf and external template.. There is also an “Archive” feature, you can archive a document and it will not display by default in the listing.

Products: You can now assign a product to a vendor/supplier. There is also a low stock warning email. Set the stock quantity and you will get an email when the quantity drops below that value.

Tickets: some more debugging information in the “Save & Test” message

Timer: a bunch of fixes and paving the way for better timer support on individual job tasks.

If you run into any issues please submit a support ticket: https://ultimateclientmanager.com/support/support-ticket/